


And the Man Who Bought It

by Kakushigo



Series: A Great Man Goes to War [2]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Gen, What Damien wants Damien gets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-08-10
Packaged: 2019-06-24 17:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15635109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kakushigo/pseuds/Kakushigo
Summary: Now that Damien has acquired Sterling, it's time to sit back and watch the man work.





	And the Man Who Bought It

**Author's Note:**

> A fill for the Sterling square on my Leverage bingo card. That's two down, 23 to go. XD

In the end, Moreau does acquire Sterling. It requires a couple bribes and manufacturing evidence (completely circumstantial, but a company as big as IYS doesn't want scandal anywhere near them, especially since every fixer in town turns down the job) but Sterling is released with a black mark on his record. It's not as organic as when Ford left, but it'll do for Moreau's purpose. Besides, he thinks that Sterling might be a bit easier to turn to the dark side then Nate anyways. Then he sends one of his men to make Sterling an offer and- Sterling turns him down. It is not what Moreau is expecting and he is mildly infuriated. People do not just turn him down. For a second, going after Sterling's daughter seems like something he should do, but then he thinks about it a little more rationally. Sterling is out of a job, yes, but he's always been a frugal man so he's not in dire straights yet. Or perhaps money isn't the way to motivate him.

So Moreau sends another man and Sterling becomes on his many, many employees. There's no official contract, but he'll keep Sterling in the style he has become accustom to (as well as give him the resources to protect his daughter from her step-father). He gives Sterling a carte-blanche for his team, he trusts the man to pick the perfect team to combat Nate's- there is no one in the world who knows Nate Ford better and now he doesn't have something pesky like the law to hold him back from doing everything Moreau knows he's capable of. While Sterling is supposed to be his answer to Nate's little team, Moreau doesn't believe in one trick ponies and made sure Sterling knew his team should be able to accomplish other things besides best Leverage.

Sterling doesn't know what to think of his mysterious benefactor. He thinks it's a bit suspicious how there was suddenly all this circumstantial evidence linking him to a crime and IYS firing him, then this man comes calling, but in the end, Sterling is curious. Someone went through a lot of trouble to acquire him and while he might not be loyal to the end, he will hear him out. And the job is an interesting one, he's run into the Leverage team a few times while trying to recover things for IYS and he and Nate were something like friends (he had even dated Maggie briefly), so he supposed in a purely logical way he was a good answer to Nate. But he'd seen Nate's team and knew that putting together a crack team like that was nearly impossible, even if his mysterious employer said he had anything he needed at his disposal (Sterling didn't think about it too much, but he was pretty sure he could ask for a nuclear bomb and he would end up with it). One of the benefits of his new job was that he was able to finally remove his daughter's pesky step-father from the picture entirely and keep his daughter safe somewhere else. She was enjoying her new school where it sunny and warm. They played chess often enough and kept in contact in other ways that certainly made it worth it.

The people that Moreau had in mind for his team weren't going to work. Oh, they were brilliant tactical teams no doubt, but Sterling had tested them. If Sterling could fool them, then Nate's team would run circles around them. So Sterling went looking for his own team. He knew this wasn't the first time someone had gone against Leverage, but he rather felt an equal match would have the best chance. A hacker for Hardison, a hitter for Eliot, a thief for Parker, a grifter for Ms. Devereaux, and another mastermind for Nate. But they needed to be able to think like Leverage and then think beyond Leverage. A team who was a family like Leverage and would know all the right places to hit.  He looked into the group Leverage had gone against before- Marcus Stark, Apollo, Mikel Dayan, and Chaos.  They'd failed at acquiring the painting that they and Leverage had been going after, but they also had one less crew member.  What he needed was someone who had insight on the original heist (more then he had, at least).  His best bet was Chaos, so he put in a request to his boss and waited.


End file.
